GIANT FOG BANK MAKES LAKE MICHIGAN DISAPPEAR FOR A COUPLE OF FISHERMEN

Approaching fog bank - Photo Andrew Ballard

NORTHERN MICHIGAN -- Spencer and Andrew Ballard didn't catch fish but instead caught an eyeful on Lake Michigan on Wednesday.   The father-son pair from Frankfort saw an enormous bank of fog roll over them in what Spencer Ballard, 59, said was a beautiful, "once-in-a-lifetime event."  And they took a video.

 

But the actual experience was more impressive than the video.  "We couldn't see anything and the wind was crazy -- it wasn't like anything I've seen before," said Andrew Ballard, 25.   "There were cool lulls where we were in a clearing with rainbows all around us."

 

The two had headed out for an evening of fishing at about 5:30 p.m. on Platte Bay, Andrew Ballard said. After about an hour, Spencer said the two saw the fog in the distance moving along the Empire Bluff of the Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore. "At first we thought they were clouds, but it started getting closer and closer to the water," Andrew said. 

 

The fog worried them at first, but after checking the weather and seeing that it wasn't a major storm, the two decided to follow their curiosity and stay out.The fog hit them around 7:30 p.m.  The wind was about 20 mph and visibility was less than 30 feet in front of them at times, Andrew said.   After about an hour of experiencing the wet, windy and cold fog, with some attempt at fishing, the two headed in without fish, but with photos and memories. 

 

"I'm glad we stayed," said Spencer, a frequent fisherman. "You see a lot of fast-moving storms and things like that but I haven't seen anything as dramatic as that," he said. "It was one of those just beautiful things on the lake and it was an example of how fast the weather can change over the water."

 

Andrew, a doctoral student at Rutgers University in New Jersey, filmed the fog bank heading toward them and posted the video on the popular sites Reddit.com and YouTube. By Thursday afternoon, the YouTube video had garnered 15,421 views. 

 

See Andrew Ballard's video

http://www.mlive.com/news/grand-rapids/index.ssf/2014/05/huge_fog_bank_on_lake_michigan.html

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